Life Afterward
by Goddess Romi Saoirse
Summary: Romilda is finding life after the war to be much less dull then she thought it would be. Especially since she is dating her former classmate - Blaise Zabini.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, which includes all of its wonderful characters. Once again I do not own Harry Potter; if I did my favorite characters wouldn't have died. Oh and Harry might have left Ginny for a very sexy male instead.

This is a **Harry Potter** challenge entry for the **5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge** (HPFC).

**Pairing:** Romilda/ Blaise

**Rating:** T for Teen

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**Life Afterward**

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She sat at her desk, staring wistfully out the wide window on the bookstore. It was a rainy day so she doubted if any customers she usually got would come in today. Romilda stood, well more like hopped off her stool into a standing position. She glided over to the front door of the bookstore and locked it, then flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED. Just then the store phone rang; she picked up on the second ring. "Hello, Vane Bindings bookstore, this is Romilda speaking." She greeted the person on the other line politely.

Romilda nodded her head, listening to the person on the phone. She picked up her pen and made a few notes then looked up at the bookcases. "Well Miss, I'm not entirely sure if we have the book you are looking for within the store at the –" She was interrupted, the woman on the phone becoming rude in her apparent panic. _Merlin, why do I have to do this?_ Romilda thought miserably.

"Miss, there is no need to take that tone with me. I am prepared to make the necessary arrangements so your books can be ordered to you." It took all of her willpower and training to remain somewhat polite, if not a bit strained with the woman. Romilda could see why purebloods didn't want to associate themselves with anything dealing with muggles.

At this the woman calmed down, explaining she needed these books for some college paper that was last minute, etcetera. Romilda could only nod her head and express her utmost understand of the situation. Just then her cell vibrated in her pocket. Sitting the store phone on her shoulder she pulled out her cell phone from her pocket and opened the text message.

'_Hey beautiful, what are you doing?'_ He'd texted her, it brought a smile to her face immediately.

'_Working, what else? Lol :)'_ The dark-haired young woman set her phone down for a moment, needing her hands free to use for her laptop. Setting up the order for the books the woman on the phone needed. Although, now her mind was partially on her boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in close to a few weeks due to what she had dubbed 'Quidditch camp'. She had something she needed to tell him and if things went right Romilda would see him tomorrow.

"Alright Miss, would you like these to be mailed to your home or here at the store for you to pick up?" She'd asked the woman, pulling a pencil from her messy bun and marking down a few things. Romilda made a few noncommittal noises when the woman launched into her small sob story about how she couldn't find these books earlier. She then proceeded to thank Romilda repeatedly for helping her once the order was in.

Her cell lit up and buzzed again with a text. "It's no problem Miss Barker, your books should arrive in the next two or three days at the address you gave me. If that is all you have a nice day." Romilda set the phone back down on the cradle.

'_What R you wearing? ;)'_ Her boyfriend and former classmate, Blaise, asked. She could already see his dark bad boy smirk flare up in her mind. Romilda frowned when her phone froze for a moment; if this one died prematurely it would be the sixth phone in a row. Magic and muggle technology tend to not work well together after a while.

'_Clothes. Don't be a perv, Blaise_.' Giggling, Romilda sent the text off and locked the phone back. Glancing at the front door for a moment she slid off the stool behind the desk and made her way into the back. She entered the small lunch area in the back part of the store; there was a table with a couple of chairs off to the side. There was also a fridge and a stand with a microwave on the other side of the room.

Placing her phone on the table, she moved over to the fridge to pull out the chicken alfredo her house-elf Mixy had made the previous night. She began thinking about how she came to work in this book store in the first place.

Her parents decided that while the war was still going on her spoiled ways had been nonexistent. But with the death of the Dark Lord she became more demanding in her grief. She also started dating Blaise Zabini, former Slytherin and pureblood bad boy. Her and her parents had a massive row that lasted three days before they announced that she was cut off. They were not disowning her they assured, just wanted her to become more independent and think more on how her choices would affect her in the long run.

Her parents gave her a bit of money and a flat in muggle London that she could stay in for the time being. After that they hadn't really been in her life much, distancing themselves from her and loving her from a far. Now, here she was with her own bookstore and everything. A soft crack and the rustling of the papers on the bulletin board behind her startled Romilda. She turned around to see her boyfriend standing in his sweaty quidditch robed apparel. It had taken everything in her not to point her wand at him because of his surprise visit.

"Blaise, what are you doing here?" Romilda asked, getting up and moving closer to the tall male. She was unable to keep the pleased grin at his unplanned social call.

Blaise stepped forward, his arm winding around her small waist and tugging her forward to plant a kiss on her soft lips. It was slow and loving, absolutely delicious in Romilda's opinion. She slowly pulled away, looking up into Blaise's dark eyes. "Not that I am complaining but what was think all about? And your visit, aren't you supposed to be practicing?" She asked one question after another; worried suddenly that Blaise had been kicked off the Puddlemere United quidditch team.

"I have a thirty minute break, I wanted to see you." Blaise told her, that smirk she knew and loved firmly in place. He was still a man of few words, and when he did speak with the velvety voice of his goose bumps decorated her skin.

"You wanted to see me?" Romilda repeated a bashful smile playing at her lips; she pushed up on her toes and kissed him again. Blaise backed her into the counter, effortlessly lifting her on to it to save his poor back the strain of bending down to kiss her. The brown skinned girl squeaked at being lifted onto the high counter, breaking the kiss and gave her boyfriend a playfully scandalized look. "Just what do you think you are doing Blaise Zabini?"

"Nothing you don't love." Was the muffled reply she got because he seemed preoccupied with kissing the side of her neck.

"You popped over here just for a quick snog didn't you?" She asked, not in the least offended – on the contrary really. Romilda was all too happy to comply with Blaise's wishes if she didn't have something rather significant to tell him. Grabbing his shoulder she pushed him back so that she could look into his eyes.

"We need to talk."

Those words four made Blaise tense up, his previously open expression shutting down into the typical slytherin mask. "No, no it's not like that!" Romilda hurried to say, caressing his cheek.

"What is it then?" He didn't defrost right away but his expression softened a little.

Romilda hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck in thought. She wasn't sure how to break such delicate news to someone. She'd always been blunt unless she was being sneaky that is, in any case this was a somewhat sensitive matter. "I'm pregnant." She finally announced.

Blasie just stood there like he was carved from stone and her insides quivered because he wasn't doing anything. He wasn't yelling or even smiling at her so she continued on, "I just happened to realize that I had missed my period last month and the month before that…" Romilda paused, peeking at Blaise and seeing no facial movement and picked up when she left off. "I went to see a Healer and he told me I was sixteen weeks along and – Blaise!"

Her boyfriend had crumpled like a sheet of paper and fell to the ground. Romilda sighed, crossing her legs and shaking her head in disbelief. Here she thought Blaise wouldn't faint like the typical male would in this situation but he had surprised her. A smile crept on her face; well she could never say their lives would be boring.

Now all she had to do was figure out how to break it to him that she was pregnant with twins. She already knew he wouldn't really believe it because she had hardly gained any weight. In truth Romilda had gained a little over seven pounds. She pulled a note pad off the top of the refrigerator and a pen out her bun and began to right. When she was done she reached down and pulled her wand out her boot.

"Enervate." Romilda commanded, pointing her wand at the prone figure of her boyfriend.

Blaise sat up at once, looking around dazedly – halting on his seated girlfriend. His mouth opened and closed a few times causing Romilda to roll her eyes and let up her notepad. On it there was a single word in big tasteful block letters. 'Twins.' The former Slytherin male blinked a few times before his eyes rolled up into his head, fainting dead again.

"Oh dear." Romilda laughed, trying to smother her laughter with her fingers. She couldn't wait to tell Parvati, Katie and Angelina about this.


End file.
